What Does Isaiah 50:6 Mean?
I have given my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who pluck out the hair. I have not hidden my face from shame and spitting.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.THE KEY
The root of “gave” also means “set” or “place,” making the back and cheeks the precise places where violence lands.
THE MEANING
You encounter violence here in the body itself: a back is struck, cheeks are plucked, and a face is met with shame and spitting. The speaker does not hide his face, so the humiliation stays visible in the words rather than becoming an abstraction.
THE ROOT
נָתַתִּי
nātattî
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
The Hebrew verb means “I gave” and can also carry the sense of setting or placing. The speaker’s back and cheeks are the direct objects of that giving, so the verse names where the violence lands without turning the violence into a gift.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The same verb family makes the speaker’s bodily exposure an act of giving or placing before the attackers.
mattānāh: Gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
This noun shares the root’s sense of giving; here, however, what is given over is the speaker’s body to harm, not a benevolent gift.
הִסְתַּרְתִּי
histartî
GROWS FROM
סתר
To hide or conceal.
“have not hidden” in this verse is histartî. The Hebrew says, “I did not hide my face,” using a verb from the root of hiding and concealed places. Its negation keeps the face visible in the sentence, with shame and spitting named plainly.
ALSO GROWS
sēter: A hiding place or secret.
סֵתֶר
This branch names what can be concealed; the verse says the speaker’s face is not concealed from humiliation.
mistār: A hiding place or concealed place.
מִסְתָּר
The word’s hiding-place sense sharpens the force of “I hid not”: the face remains exposed rather than tucked away.
THE PATTERN
Contempt becomes concrete when Scripture names what is done to a body.
He was pressed, and he was bowed low, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter, and like a ewe before her shearers he was mute, so he did not open his mouth.They recoil from me, keep far away, and do not hold back spittle from my face.Then they spat in his face and struck him with their fists, and others slapped him with the palms of their hands.THE THREAD
They put a bitter root in my food, and for my thirst they give me vinegar to drink.The same Hebrew root נתן (natan, give or place) appears in both verses. Isaiah names the speaker giving his back and cheeks to violence; Psalm 69 names others giving him gall and vinegar, showing the root’s plain sense of what is put before someone, whether welcome or cruel.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us